East Japan pref. incorrectly fails 16 people in foreign language driver’s license test – The Mainichi

6 comments

1. Sometimes I wanna laugh but now thinking about it it’s just sad at this point.

2. I took the test in both kanagawa and Shizuoka (I moved half way through driving school) and the tests there are ridiculously bad. I had to do them in English even though my school was only in Japanese (because I’m a foreigner).

   Just got my old test out and here is an example:

   Circle Y/N

   1)I drive and earthquake hits. I drive side. (Answer is n because you need to park on the side of the road and leave your keys in the car).

   2) i have box in mini bike (answer is n) because what size etc etc

   Nagoya apparently is the place to do the test because Toyota wrote the textbooks in legit native level English

3. “Incorrectly” … suuuuure

4. I transferred my driver’s license from Australia. I live in Osaka and I was at the license center at opening time, along with dozens of other foreigners (mostly Chinese, Vietnamese and Indian). By the time I was getting my photo taken and my license printed I was the only one left. Everyone else was turned away because of incorrect paperwork etc. I don’t know why it has to be so complicated. My friend living in the UK said they just mailed in their Australian license and got a UK one in return.

   When my wife was living in Australia she just had to get a certified English translation of her license and she could drive legally. Getting a translation is just the first step to get a license in Japan.

5. I just took the karimen theory (on Tuesday) in Kagoshima (well Amami – but I am assuming it is a Kagoshima prefectural test). The English did make things more difficult, primarily because expressions of temporal ordering were off. Fortunately there was also Japanese, which I cannot read all that well, but which at least gave me some ordering.

6. Gunma – saved you a click